This cake is for all the coconut lovers. It is called a golden cake as it is crowned with a coconut meringue that goes lightly golden once baked.
The crown of coconut meringue rests on a soft and moist cake. It is a heavenly tea cake.
The majority of my recommended recipes are one bowl recipes. This recipe does ask for the eggs to be separated because egg whites are needed to make the meringue. The yolks go into the cake batter.
Tips for separating eggs
- Use the freshest eggs as an older egg may have a ‘looser’ yolk.
- Keep 2 bowls close by – one for the whites and one for the yolks.
- Make sure that the egg whites go into a mixing bowl that is free of any grease. When whipping up egg whites, any type of fat will make meringue formation difficult. You can cut up a lemon into halves and rub the inside of one half over the inner surface of your bowl. This removes any fat left over from previous use. Or you can make sure you wash the inside of the bowl really well.
- Crack your egg and try and get 2 neat halves.
- Crack the egg over the cleaned mixing bowl. Once cracked the whites start to run almost immediately. You can hold one hand over the egg white bowl and turn the half of the cracked egg-shell that has the yolk on to hand. Cup your hands and catch the yolk, while the eggs drip into your bowl. Once the whites have dropped off, place the yolk into another bowl. If you don’t want to use your hands to catch the yolk, you can empty out one half of the whites from one egg half and pour the yolk half into the empty shell. Then empty the whites from the yolk-less half and once done, place yolk in a bowl.
- If you get a little bit of yolk into the egg whites and you cannot get it out, carry on with the meringue. I have been caught out when a very tiny speck of yolk got mixed into the egg white portion. It is not a big deal and you can proceed. If the yolk becomes runny and lands into the eggwhite portion, I would recommend that you start again. That much yolk will never allow for a meringue to whip up.
- An egg separator is the easiest option to separate the whites from the yolk, but I would not recommend you go out and get one.
Ingredients for Cake
- 125 softened butter/margarine
- ½ c of caster sugar
- 3 large eggs separated (yolk for the batter and whites for the meringue)
- 5ml vanilla
- 1c cake flour
- 2 tsps baking powder
- ½ c milk
Method to make cake
- Grease and line the bottom of a 20cm loose-bottomed round baking pan.
- Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
- Cream butter and sugar with electric beaters until light and creamy.
- Add vanilla and yolks and beat well together.
- Sift flour and baking powder together.
- Gently add sifted dry ingredients in 2 batches to the creamed mixture alternating with the milk. Always start and end with dry ingredients.
- Blend well for a minute. Pour cake mixture into baking pan.
Ingredients for Meringue
- 1c dessicated coconut
- ½ c caster sugar
- 3 egg whites
Method to make meringue
- Clean your beaters really well as you do not want to add the fat to your egg-whites. (you can even start with making the meringue and leave the cake batter for after)
- Beat egg-whites until soft peaks form.
- Add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time to the egg whites and beat.
- Do not dump all the sugar at once as the egg whites will lose their lightness and not whip into meringue properly.
- Beat the sugar into the egg-whites until firm peaks form. This may take up to 5 minutes.
- Gently fold in the coconut into the meringue using a large spoon.
Assemble cake and meringue
- Gently add the meringue mixture over the cake batter.
- Spread evenly and lightly so that the cake batter is completely covered.
- Bake ay 160 degrees celsius for 45-50 minutes.
- The cake will be well risen and golden when done.
- Leave out to cool for 10 minutes before gently easing out of baking tin.
